Microsoft Pins ‘Halo 5: Guardians’ Release for 2015

Microsoft says that Xbox One owners can expect the next major Halo release, Halo 5: Guardians, to make its way to the console in the fall of 2015. Get those trigger fingers ready.

Microsoft made the announcement in a post on its Xbox Wire news blog early yesterday, noting that users can expect Halo 5: Guardians to be a perfect representation of the features and graphics that games running on the Xbox One are capable of.

Notably, Microsoft’s 343 Industries, the developer in charge of the Halo franchise, says that its new engine and the Xbox One’s power will allow Halo 5: The Guardians to run at a full 60 frames per second. In short, the game should look almost cinematic. Unfortunately, that statistic is a bit meaningless since Microsoft didn’t share the game’s native resolution.

343 Industries General Manger Bonnie Ross described Halo 5: Guardians as a larger project than Halo 4 saying, “Halo 5: Guardians is a bigger effort than Halo 4. That applies to the content and scope of the game, as well as the technology in what’s now a brand new and more powerful engine. Certainly there are some core elements carried over from prior games, but we’ve invested a huge effort in retooling our tech to take full advantage of the Xbox One’s hardware and ecosystem to create worlds and experiences worthy of next-gen.”

Halo 5: Guardians will include the Master Chief in its story. However, it doesn’t appear as if it’s actually him on the cover of the game.

That Microsoft absolutely nails Halo 5: Guardians is crucial to the Xbox One’s success. By the time the game makes its début in the fall of 2015, the honeymoon stage after the Xbox One’s release will be over. Microsoft will exclusive titles that are only available on the Xbox One to get buyers of the fence and into checkout lines. Past games in the franchise have also acted as a showcase for unique Xbox extras that inspired third-party developers. For example, Halo: Anniversary was the first game in the series to include voice commands alongside traditional first-person shooter game play, and all the recent Halo games have rewarded users for completing tasks with clothing for their Xbox Live Avatar.

It doesn’t appear as if Microsoft will release a version of Halo 5: Guardians for the Xbox 360.